WCOB Economics Professor Dr. Serkan Catma Authors WV Jobs Study

Dr. Serkan Catma, Ph.D.

A new jobs study released by the West Liberty University Institute for Innovation in Education is the work of Gary E. West College of Business professor Dr. Serkan Catma. WLU President Robin Capehart introduced Catma at a February 18 press conference announcing the study findings.

The “West Virginia Jobs and Education Report” documents future labor market needs for the state of West Virginia by estimating labor shortage/surplus per occupation. Catma found that a shortage of job candidates will exist in West Virginia in the fields of nursing and other medical fields, social work, and computer and information sciences, Engineering, education administration, and chemistry fields are predicted to have more graduates looking for work than jobs to be filled in West Virginia. The research is based on data obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Workforce West Virginia, and the WV Higher Education Policy Commission.

Dr. Catma is a Senior Fellow at the WLU Institute for Innovation in Education and Assistant Professor of Economics in the Gary E. West College of Business. He earned an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Economics from West Virginia University and has been a member of the WCOB faculty for six years.